Created by Jean-Marie Leblanc ten years ago, the Classique des Alps is the only one day race which brings the peleton over the same mountains where the Tour de France and the Dauphine usually go. It's hard. Very hard. This is because of the three majestic mountain passes on the course. On Saturday, the race was even harder due to the fog and the rain. Horrendous conditions in fact the reports say.

That didn't frighten Spanish climber Iban Mayo, 23, who already surprised everyone by taking the overall classification in the Midi Libre a few days before. He went away on his own very far from the finish and another race started behind him as he had more than 5 minutes lead. "It' was Lance Armstrong who scattered all the other riders who tried to hold his back wheel, team directeur Alain Gallopin explained. Only one of them was able to follow him: Pavel Tonkov. He wasn't very motivated, but I encouraged him quite a bit and he overtook his fatigue on the top of the Granier climb. He came back on Armstrong in the downhill. Then it's was a fantastic man to man battle. In the end, we had a very good result from this race."